Zinovyi Knysh.Horodok.Toronto, 1973

Zinoviy Knysh. Horodok.

Toronto: Sribna Surma, 1973. — 551 p.: plans. — Printed by: Kiev Printers Ltd., 860 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Ontario.

Bound in green publisher's cloth: the author's name and title on the front cover and spine are printed in orange ink; the back cover is plain. Covers are clean, without creases; minor rubbing at the corners and top of the spine, and a small dark spot near the spine on the front cover. The text block is tight. The paper is thick, fibrous, and evenly yellowed; there is light foxing near the inner margin on the verso of the title page. Condition: very good.

Author's lifetime edition. The book has historical and cultural value and is of collector's interest.

INFORMATION

The book is devoted to the attack by OUN militants on the post office in Horodok near Lviv on November 30, 1932. The operation failed, and two of its participants, Vasyl Bilas and Dmytro Danylyshyn, were sentenced to death by the court. In the introduction, the author recalls that songs were composed about them, their portraits hung in homes, societies and houses were named after them, yet no one had gathered precise data for historians. He cites Danylo Chaikovsky's book "Bilas and Danylyshyn" (New York, 1969) as the first publication on the subject. Knysh's own volume is documentary: the first part reconstructs the operation itself, beginning with the tense night in Lviv, reports in the Polish press, arrests, and searches; the fourth, from p. 425, describes the political consequences. At the end are an index of names and hand-drawn plans: the militants' positions in the post office building and a map of the town.

Zinoviy Knysh (1906–1999) was a lawyer, historian, and publicist, born in Kolomyia. From 1924, he served in the combat staff of the UVO, and later in the OUN leadership. From 1949, he lived in Canada, where he devoted his work to the history of the UVO and OUN.

The edition was published by "Sribna Surma," a Toronto publishing house that Knysh himself organized and funded; the volume was printed by Toronto's "Kiev Printers Ltd."